Living and Gardening in Brittany

All these seats and no time benefit from them. There is so much to do that I rarely have time to sit.

Je suis sortie de la maison pour faire le  tour du jardin et je suis tombée tout aussitôt en arrêt devant la première toile d'araignée. Elle était tendu entre le  chèvrefeuille et la clématites. De fins câbles de soie  reliaient les  deux ramures. Au centre  de ce réseau, la bête avait tissé le piège : une Belle toile. Toute  cette  construction  fragile, nous  ne l'aurions même  pas aperçu si le brouillard  ne l'avait rendu sensible en l'emperlant avec une délicatesse exquise.

I went out this morning  to clear up yesterday's pruning and weeding. On the way I noticed that the strawberries  needed weeding. I wasn't  going to bother with the soft fruit this year because of lack of time. As I was weeding I found a few ripe strawberries. I went to get a bowl and picked all the ripe ones . I moved on to the raspberries and found  that there were quite a few including  the white ones which a really sweet.  Now I'm  on a roll and continue  to fill my bowl with blackcurrants  and gooseberries. I picked enough to make a Summer pudding.

I have attempted to sow all the seeds that I have.  Last years seeds were very disappointing in spite of the fact that I have a super big new greenhouse. I have been watering morning and evening so I am hoping for better results this year. I have two new projects. Jenny gave me some bamboo canes and I have made a screen with them. I shall buy a new climbing rose to cover it. Carmel showed me how to train the willow to continue the structure of the willow house behind the shed. Yesterday I cut nearly all the grass. today I hope to finish the job. Now I have to continue the never ending job of weeding. This is one of my favourite roses. I have no idea where this came from but I love it.

Gardening has so many ups and downs . Happily the ups far out way the downs. The garden is absolutely blooming at the moment.

It usually takes a week to prune -cut back the wisteria. If I didn't do this it would cover the house and damaged the gutters and the roof. The work is worth it. When I was up the ladder  I thought that this would be the last time i would be able to do this. This year I am cutting the dead flowers from the hydrangeas at the same time. It does take a lot of time and effort but this is gardening.

I realised that I have neglected the flower beds that I made around the house. In fact the very beginnings of the garden. there is a horrid creeping ground covering weed which has taken hold.  so I battled in the past with dandelions and buttercups now I have to win this battle. The gardens around the house are also the spring garden. So as I have been working really hard the daffodils and primroses have appeared. Suddenly I am surrounded with spring colour. It is so much easier to work hard when ones past efforts are rewarded like this.

So all cats now have electronic chip inspite of the fact that patch managed to escape from the basket twice . She should be called  Houdini. I watched the Davis cup which GB won.  But that means I am well behind with the garden jobs. I have today cleared an area near the camelias and the rambling rose Paul's Himalayan musk. I have run out of manure  so am going to try cardboard and straw. It's a sunny day today and I wish I had more energy to do more in the garden. The spring flowers are just beginning to appear. Primroses and daffodils are in bud.      Just noticed that this had flowered. I thought it was autumn flowering.   

Heavy frost, Australian open and cats have taken up all my time. So no gardening for days. Before this I began to try to dig up the japonica. I made some progress and determined  to spend sometime every day on this as it is really a very big job. I should never have allowed it to get this big  and it was planted in the wrong place. I made a quick visit to the green house today. I think the pots of tulips and other plants are a little dry. I must find time to water them. Japonica in flower but now it is big and stragley

Today is another frosty day but I am continuing to  weed, add manure and add straw to all the flower beds.

I have weeded and spread manure mixed with wood ash on all the beds in the slate garden. It is  planted with perennials and now I have to  spread straw. I began to weed the beds round the front lawn. There are a lot of weeds because I think in other years I have left it too late to weed. I have made an internal list in my head of daily jobs as well as the weeding and spreading manure. The list:   slate                 seed for birds                 straw                soil from mole hills